First African-American Woman To Don Coast Guard Uniform by William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
February
22, 2020
In wartime, men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard have fought for
the freedoms we hold dear. But this holds true not only against
external enemies who threaten our way of life, but also less visible
forces within American society that have denied rights and freedoms
to its citizens. This problem has been experienced first-hand by
American minorities, many of whom fought our enemies on one hand
while struggling against institutionalized discrimination on the
other.
Such was the case with Olivia Juliette Hooker, the
first African-American woman to don a Coast Guard uniform 75 years
ago. Born in 1915, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Olivia Hooker was six
years old when the Klu Klux Klan burned her father’s clothing store
in the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. Her family survived the
riots, but Hooker’s father sought a community where his children
could live without fear of violence.
September 9, 2013
- Olivia Hooker (98) recalls her experiences as one of the first African American female members in the Coast Guard SPAR program during World War II. Hooker is a native of White Plains, NY and recieved her Doctorate as a school psychologist.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ali Flockerzi)
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Hooker’s family moved to Topeka, Kansas, and then
Columbus, Ohio, where she graduated from high school in 1937. Hooker
went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in education at The Ohio State
University. For the next few years, she taught third grade at the
old Garfield Elementary School in Columbus.
Meanwhile, World War II was raging. During the war,
there existed a number of female military corps, including the
Army’s WACs, Navy’s WAVEs, and Coast Guard’s SPARs (acronym for
Semper Paratus“Always Ready”). In October 1944, President Franklin
Roosevelt ordered these female military corps opened to minority
enlistment. African-American leaders, such as Beulah Whitby,
president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, hailed the president’s
order stating, “This order from the commander-in-chief that opens
the auxiliary services of the Navy to Negro women is a beach-head in
the battle for democracy.”
By the time the U.S. military
opened enlistment to minority women, Hooker had nearly reached the
age of 30. However, even though she had experienced discrimination
and racial violence in her own country, she made up her mind to
support the nation’s war effort and enlist. Hooker first tried to
join the WAVE’s, but the Navy rejected her application.
Early
in 1945, she applied to the Coast Guard and the Service accepted her
for enlistment. On February 17, 1945, just a few days after her
30th birthday, Hooker was sworn-in as a member of the SPARs.
That same day, Lieutenant Margaret Tighe at the Columbus, Ohio,
recruiting office wrote...
It was not easy for Miss Hooker to
take the step of enlistment. She is the first Negro woman to be
accepted by the SPARS, and is in full realization of this fact. She
feels a sincere desire to serve and further feels that she is
opening a field for the young women of her own race.
She is to be admired for her initiative and courage. Solely on the basis of qualifications, Miss Hooker is one of the outstanding young women ever accepted for the SPARs and it is a pleasure to recommend her.
Hooker
had become the first African-American woman to wear a Coast Guard
uniform.
In early March, Hooker reported to the Coast Guard’s
Manhattan Beach Training Center in New York to begin boot camp. For
six weeks, Hooker rose every morning at 5:00 a.m. and exercised for
an hour before breakfast. Each day of training included chores,
physical training and classes.She completed basic training in April
and, for nine more weeks, she attended the Coast Guard’s yeoman
school at Manhattan Beach.
After completing her training,
Yeoman 3rd class Hooker received orders to Coast Guard Personnel
Separation Center #1 located in Boston. While there, she spent most
of her time preparing discharges for the numerous Coast Guardsmen
returning home from the war and re-joining civilian life. In 1994,
Hooker recounted to a Coast Guard public affairs specialist her
processing an 18-year-old out of the Service. She recalled the young
man describing coming under heavy fire during the D-Day landings
and, for hours, taking cover under a pile of dead bodies. Hooker
commented, “He made the war seem very real to me.”
A candid photograph captured on board a cutter by Coast Guard public affairs specialist in 1945. (Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard)
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By
mid-1946, most wartime Coast Guardsmen had been processed out of the
Service. The Coast Guard disbanded the SPARs and Hooker processed
her own discharge papers while still serving at Boston. Using her GI
Bill benefits, she earned a masters degree in psychology from
Columbia University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
Rochester. By the early 1960s, Hooker had begun a career as a
psychologist and professor of psychology at New York’s Fordham
University. She also served as a member of the Kennedy Child Study
Center in the Bronx. In 2002, she retired at the age of 87 after a
long career in education and mental health care.
Throughout
her life, Olivia Hooker was a leader in civic, community, cultural
and educational organizations, including the NAACP, her local White
Plains Child Daycare Association, Westchester Visiting Nurse
Services, and several other organizations. She also served as a
consultant on minority issues at Fordham University and as youth
counselor and certified lay speaker in the United Methodist Church.
In 2014, Dr. Hooker expressed her own philosophy of service to
others: “It’s not about you or me; it’s about what we can give to
this world.”
Dr. Olivia J. Hooker was a pioneer in the
history of women and minorities in the Coast Guard and the nation.
She believed that her military service taught her “a lot about order
and priorities” and “how to better form relationships, and how to
deal with people without bias and prejudice.” Despite experiencing
hatred and racism in her own life, she devoted her life and her
career to serving the needs of her community and her nation.
Dr. Hooker passed away in 2018 at the age of 103. She was a
trailblazing member of the long blue line and a remarkable example
of the Service’s core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty.
She will be honored as the namesake of a Fast Response Cutter.
Video > Olivia Hooker's WWII SPARS Story
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